College Students Have Much at Stake in Budget Debates

Young people around the country have voiced growing interest in the debate over the federal budget and fiscal reform. That’s appropriate because they have so much at stake.

College students have an obligation to get involved in the post-election debate over the federal budget and the search for a better alternative to the year-end fiscal cliff, according to a recent guest column in American University’s The Eagle by Jonathan Humma and Ben Ritz, a Concord Coalition staff member.

While avoiding the fiscal cliff is important, they write, college students in both parties should also push elected officials to work together to develop plans for responsible long-term deficit reduction. If that isn’t done, young people will pay a disproportionate price over their lifetimes.

“We are the ones who will have to pay higher taxes,” Ritz and Humma write. “We are the ones who won’t be able to afford to educate our children. We are the ones who won’t be able to pay for a first-world infrastructure. We are the ones who are disproportionately affected by this debt, and so we are the ones who need to be disproportionately involved in getting it under control. It’s up to us to demand action.”